Scott Sanders
2206 W. Arthur #3N
Chicago, IL 60645
312-376-5404
mail.ssanders( )yahoo.com
Key for selected highlights:
A = Scott authored or co-authored a published article, post, or editorial work
B = Scott mentioned in a book
Ed = places where Scott received his education
I = Scott helped instigate or catalizee news media coverage
L = Scott lobbied elected officials
O = Scott helped to organize and/or spoke at a forum / lecture / meeting /protest
P = performance by Scott
Res = research work Scott performed
T = televised coverage of an event Scott participated in or helped organize
W = paid work that Scott has performed
Caravan” with
his classmates. He worked in ½ inch and 1 inch videotape at jr. high, and ¾ inch
and 2 inch quadruplex tape at New Trier
Township Instructional Television. NTTITV was a five channel ITFS educational
microwave network serving the highly regarded schools in Winnetka and the
surrounding Chicago north shore area. Sanders operated camera, audio, and
playback engineering, and served as production coordinator in his sophomore
year. ITV mostly replayed instructional videos and films from WTTW, Films
Incorporated, National Geographic, and Encyclopedia Britannica, but ITV also
created its own shows. Scott crewed on a film “Lewis and Clark in Illinois” and
programs in which Jack Spatafora, the director of ITV, interviewed of the
makers of Broadway’s “Grease” and Adlai Stevenson III.
1970’s
* Ed/P/T Scott first worked in 8mm film the summer after 5th grade, helping to create “Dr. Doolittle’s
* Ed/P/T Scott first worked in 8mm film the summer after 5th grade, helping to create “Dr. Doolittle’s
management teams simultaneously at both Mann’s Village and Bruin theaters, two registered historic landmark movie palaces located in Westwood Village, California. He filed daily box office and concession reports, worked in the box office, helped to supervise contracted services and a staff of twenty at the Bruin and more at the larger Village, and worked with Hollywood studio executives on first run and advance screenings, including the first public screening of “Apocalypse Now!” in LA. There aren't many jobs where you get a chance to talk to members of Monty Python, Dustin Hoffman, and the first female major studio head Sherry Lansing!
* Ed While working at the Village and Bruin, Scott crewed on around twenty student video projects (and one second year 16mm film) at the Kennedy Center’s prestigious masters level American Film Institute (AFI) conservatory. AFI was then located at the largest estate in Beverly Hills, Greystone Mansion, built by the Teapot Dome oil baron Edward Doheny on whom the movie “There Will Be Blood” was loosely based. Greystone has served as a location for a great many feature films, including “Eraserhead”, “The Disorderly Orderly”, and was the house of “the rich dude” in “The Big Lebowski”. Though not registered as a student, Scott nonetheless worked as a video camera assistant, audio recordist, Nagra (film) audio assistant, boom operator, gaffergrip, assistant to the producer, assistant editor, and other positions. Scott was given a diploma that was "discovered", already signed but with a blank where the graduate’s name goes, in a box by some students, and his name was calligraphed in. There's a convincing stand-in for Scott in the class photo.
1982
* W Scott has worked many years as a professional independent producer of industrial documentaries performing videography, location lighting, sound recording, editing, and
sales. During this period he acquired a fluid hand-held documentary camera method and basic editing skills, creating at least 300 life cycle event documentaries and a
| Dr. Dennis Brutus, anti-apartheid activist, frequent EATV guest |
* V/L In the pre-internet, pre-CAN TV, early-to-mid 1980’s, public access cable arrived in Evanston, Illinois. Sanders and co-creator Paul Rosen were the first in the Chicago area to produce a progressive cable tv magazine series. It was called “Evanston Alternative Television” (EATV) and you can view a demo reel of the thirty-six episode series here and its catalog here. It mixed news, documentaries, discussion, music and other arts. Topics included tenants rights, human rights, women’s rights, animal rights, and anti-imperialism. Guests included Sidney Lens, editor of the Progressive magazine; Dr. Cheryl Johnson, then co-chair of the African studies dept. at Northwestern U.; Dr. Dennis Brutus, professor of English at Northwestern University. Brutus cracked rocks on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela and on release organized the boycott of racist South Africa by the Olympics that started in 1964; Tenant’s Organization of Evanston founder Michael Pensack; & Angela Davis, U.S. VP candidate 1984 &1988 for the Communist Party USA.
* V/L The cable provider Cablevision unsuccessfully attempted to permanently ban Sanders and Rosen from the access station after a verbal altercation with cable company access management. A free speech battle and boycott campaign ensued.
* R At the studios of WZRD-FM and WNUR-FM, Scott participated ocasionally in live, free-form programming in 1983-1986, including the latenight performances called “voidwatches”, and took copious notes from the mighty WiZaRDs.
1985
* V Scott was a co-founding trustee in the formative stages of the Committee for Labor Access and its series Labor Beat, advocating for access and labor tv programming on Chicago public access. (1985-1986). Labor Beat is still going strong.
* P A limited edition early industrial noise / music audiocassette was released by the North Shore Industrial League, aka “Burden of Friendship”. On the tape, Sanders contributed percussion and ambience along with WZRD-FM wizards at the Unarco-Leavitt steel tube forge in Evanston.
| WZRD gm Scott Marshall, host Rob Sherman |
* R Warren Freiberg radio show WWJY 103.9 FM - live call-in with Scott and Paul Rosen in NW Indiana.
* The dispute between Cablevision and Sanders and Rosen was amicably settled, and this more than any other single factor set the path toward independent governance of public access. The two proceeded to produce new programming and Cablevision’s days as the provider of public access in Evanston were numbered.
* V Sanders was the director of "Illinois Atheist TV News Forum" (view clip here) hosted by Robert Sherman, then president of the Illinois Chapter of American Atheists. Approximately sixteen episodes were created during 1985 and and 1986.
| Madelyn Murray O’Hair and her son Garth |
* Sanders and Rosen also advocated for the airing of the American Atheist TV News Forum, hosted by Madelyn Murray O’Hair and two of her children (go to 25:00). Scott remembers being thanked by O’Hair’s son Garth for keeping the show on the schedule. And here is a clip from
1986
* P/W "Burden of Friendship" live performance at Cabaret Metro, Chicago - video montage editor.
* T Sanders was shown directing the cable access program “Illinois Atheist News Forum” on CNN.
* L Scott’s lobbying and an organized chorus of complaints about Cablevision caused the City to inaugurate an independent nonprofit with a member elected board to administer public access in Evanston. CAN TV ascended, and Evanston Community Media Center (ECMC) functioned well for the bulk of the next 25 years. And Sanders had learned how to organize and democratise local nonprofit media.
* W He documented the annual member meeting of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) held at Loyola University, Chicago. It featured then Gov. James Thompson and his Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson III.
1986-1991
* W Scott worked many years as a professional independent producer of industrial documentaries performing videography, location lighting, sound recording, editing, and sales. During this period he acquired a fluid hand-held documentary camera method and basic editing skills, creating at least 300 life cycle event documentaries and a tiny number of videos for businesses. (1982=1983, 1986-1999)
* A/Res “The U.S. Corporate Media Elite and the Military-Media Complex” was volunteer research that links a majority of the trustees of the seven most influential U.S. media conglomerates at that time -- GE, CBS, Capital Cities/ABC, Post/Newsweek, Turner, Dow Jones, and Time, Inc. -- to military contractors including controversial nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare research, Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) research, and foreign military sales. A limited edition of forty copies were made by hand.
1992
* I In 1992, Sanders educated area citizens about Chicago public tv station WTTW’s refusal to air the academy award winning (go to 4:25) film “Deadly Deception”, which roasted the station’s top sponsor and nuclear weapon manufacturer General Electric. Then he got wind from FAIR’s Kim Deterline that a new progressive media activist group was forming in Chicago.
* O/I Norman Solomon, a key figure in the early days of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), was the keynote speaker for a media reform organizing forum at the
UE union hall in Chicago. The host at that event was In These Times editor Salim Muwakkil, whose path was to cross Scott’s on numerous occasions over the years.
This event served to publicly launch Chicago Media Watch (CMW). Along with the talented video editor Melissa Sterne, Scott did the work behind Solomon's visit to Chicago and most everything else CMW did. Scott lined up Solomon’s paid talk at John Callaway’s Benton Fellowship journalism program and his media coverage back when the local MSM sometimes actually covered media reform. Here is a related article from Ginny Holbert at the Chicago Sun-Times. And here is a good summary by Liz Stevens at New City.
Other founding members of CMW were Liane Casten, Bobbie Zacharias, Aaron Adler, and Bud and Evelyn Salk.
Sanders then helped put together the twenty-four community groups that comprised the Coalition for Democracy in Public Television (CDPTV), an independent group that sprang from CMW. Scott's additions included Operation PUSH (now merged with the National Rainbow Coalition), the 100-group Coalition for New Priorities, and the Hollywood Coalition Vs. PBS Censorship. Sanders was CDPTV’s sole elected representative. Others attending CDPTV steering committee meetings included the talented local documentary filmmakers Bob Hercules, Allan Siegel, Gordon Quinn, Jamie Caesar, Melissa Sterne, Delmarie Cobb, and Labor Beat founder Larry Duncan. CDPTV sought documentary program airings and the implementation of democratic structural changes through amendment of WTTW’s bylaws.
1993
* R In 1993, Scott was interviewed by WXRT’s Michelle D’Amico about WTTW’s refusal to air “Deadly Deception”.
* I/T/R Programming-wise and structurally, the CDPTV achieved limited success. Selected episodes of the monthly labor series “We Do the Work” and the weekly moderately pacifist series “America’s Defense Monitor” were combined and aired under the weekly series title "Viewpoint" (yes that is Marty Robinson’s voice introducing the show) on Sundays at noon for several years. The coalition also achieved weekly airings of Danny Schechter and Rory O’Connor’s Globalvision human rights series “Rights and Wrongs” hosted by Charlayne Hunter-Gault, but in a 7:30AM Saturday time slot. And two more persons of color were added to WTTW’s (self-elected) board of 1%er trustees. The academy award-winning documentaries
| “Ida handles all the checks.” |
"Panama Deception" and "Deadly Deception" were never scheduled by WTTW. Neither were any elections for any of the station's board of trustee seats. And at right is an interesting photo of a donation check from two friends of the CDPTV cause.
* I/L In 1993 with the superb legal services of the Media Access Project (hat tip to Gordon Quinn, see also this 2005 CMA petition to deny) and the Georgetown University Law Center Institute for Public Representation, the Coalition for Democracy in Public Television filed a complaint with the FCC, charging WTTW with breaking noncommercial fundraising regulations. Robert Feder at the Sun-Times was the first to write about the home shopping broadcasts.
1994
* O Scott was the introductory speaker for the "Public Television: Past, Present and Future" public forum held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) organizeed by the Coalition for Democracy in Public Television. Panelists: Attorney Janette Wilson - National Executive Director of Operation PUSH; Gordon Quinn - Kartemquin Films (executive producer of "Hoop Dreams"); Carlos Tortolero - Mexican Fine Arts Museum; Lewis Lapham - Harper's magazine (which was endowed primarily by the John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation in 1980). The event was hosted by Dalida Maria Benfield - Women in the Director's Chair. Excerpt. Note: As part of his visit, Lapham was the last speaker at WTTW news director John Callaway's William Benton Fellowship Program in Broadcast Journalism before it folded.
* O/I home shopping complaint continued to make noise in 1994 including in FAIR Extra!, Communications Daily, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Chicago Sun-Times, Crain’s and Variety, Chicago Tribune, Public Broadcasting Report, Wall Street Journal, and Broadcasting & Cable, and Electronic Media.
1995
* The CDPTV changed its name in 1995 to Democracy in Public Broadcasting and found some new friends in a group called The BEZ Hive, a group of activists trying to hold Chicago Public Radio WBEZ 91.5FM to account. The BEZ’s Hive was the last local media activist group to distribute its communications primarily using the US mail.
* O/I Those are the lawyers for CDPTV, CPB, PBS, and WTTW below Scott’s name as CDPTV representative, at the end of this 1995 “wrist slap” admonishment issued to WTTW by the FCC. Here is an article on this from Current, the public broadcasting trade publication.
1996
* V/W Scott edited a tv series called "Law Talk", which aired viewer call-ins with lawyers on issues of consumer fraud, family law and employee rights. It aired on CAN TV and
also channel 23 WFBT-TV Chicago. (1996-1997)
* L Scott organized a visit with the local office of U.S. Rep. John Porter (10th-R). Present were Delmarie Cobb, former communications director for the 1988 Jesse Jackson presidential campaign; Fred Marx, co-producer of "Hoop Dreams"; and Bob Cleland, founder of the Illinois chapter of Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy and candidate in the 1980's for 10th U.S. Congressional District against Porter. The occasion was Newt Gingrich's attempt to “zero out” CPB funding.
* W If Scott’s video production business partner had not crashed the company car into the company phone number due to personal issues, there could have been a lot more radio-activism in Chicago in the late 90’s in partnership with the BEZ’s Hive, what with WBEZ’s expanding war on music and the truth, and Clinton’s horrendous Telecommunications Act of 1997.
1997
* I The home shopping warning issued in 1995 to WTTW helped most to justify - and was specifically cited in - the otherwise unsourced complaint that lead to the ground breaking 1997 FCC fine, reduced by the FCC in 2000, against WTTW for airing commercial ads. That fine, in turn, contained a specific warning to PBS.
* V/W Scott helped create commercials for five lawyers associated with “Law Talk”.
| Skokie Public Library |
* W At the Skokie Public Library, Sanders got ten years experience from 1998 to 2008 as a technology and periodicals librarian, with some reference librarian experience as well. With nearly a $14 million budget and around 120 employees, the Skokie Public Library is a college library-sized regional facility and is generally considered the best in Illinois outside of Chicago's Harold Washington Library Center. The list of software programs and teaching skills Scott learned for this job is too long to fit here. Having no masters in library science, he was indeed lucky to learn so much from so many intelligent people at SPL while being paid.
2000
* B Scott is featured repeatedly in the Chicago section of the book "Air Wars: The Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting" by Pittsburgh-based Jerold M. Starr, Ph.D. via their earlier contact when they had discovered that they were working on parallel paths in their respective cities.
2001
* O Scott was contacted by Starr to help organize a Chicago chapter of Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting. CIPB co-sponsored film discussion forums that attempted to address the pro-war propaganda that mushroomed out of control after 9/11.
2002
* O Scott and Dale Lehman helped organized a Public forum with Gabe Huck and Theresa Kubasak of Voices in the Wilderness, along with the documentary "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" at the Skokie Public Library. Co-sponsored by Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting (CIPB).
* O In the fall and winter months, Scott, with Dale Lehman, co-created the War and Peace film series in partnership with Chicago Filmmakers in response to the build up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and mass slaughter of its people. The program featured "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq", "Hidden Wars of Desert Storm", "Jang Aur Aman", "A Child's Century of War", "Tragedy in the Holy Land: The Second Uprising", "In Shifting Sands: The Truth about UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq". The series was co-sponsored by Citizens for Independent Public Broadcasting (CIPB).
* O/I Scott was one of ten soon-to-be Chicago Media Action steering committee members present at its action-packed birth, which took place immediately after a number of members of the audience walked out of a media and democracy conference event at Loyola University sponsored by Chicago Media Watch a few months prior to the Invasion of Iraq in November 2002.
CMW’s Casten had announced at the last minute the addition of Richard Baehr, a speaker representing AIPAC, the Israel lobby, to the conference for balance. Political communications consultant Chris Geovanis led the walkout after conference keynoter, media educator Sut Jhally, announced that he was leaving before Baehr spoke because his inclusion flew in the face of the purpose of the conference and CMW. Here is the perspective of the Chicago Reader’s media columnist Michal Miner on these events.
Persons who became particularly active with CMA included: Mitchell Szczepanczyk, James Owens, Karen Bond, Jeanette Foreman, Bob Gallie, Dale Lehman, Ron Kunde, Frances Hagemann, Steve Macek, Jennifer Reft, and Scott. A number of these people had tried to help steer CMW in its 1998-2002 iteration. Many others contributed to CMA’s efforts.
2003
* O Scott drove and skidded through a blizzard on icy Pennsylvania roads with CMA member Karen Young to attend the FCC hearing on media ownership consolidation in Richmond, VA. This was the only official public hearing held to address the FCC's attempt to eliminate virtually all remaining broadcast ownership rules later in June.
* O He helped organize two fruitless pre-Iraq invasion meetings with Chicago public tv programming executives and community groups at WTTW in January.
* Here is a photo of Scott with someone he met at the first Free Press National Conference on Media Reform in Madison, Wisconsin and one of with FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (D).
* A Scott was the co-editor of the Chicago Media Action monthly newsletter from 2003 through its last issue in late 2012. You can link to several issues here.
* In September, Scott helped to organize a protest at Chicago Tribune Plaza and at NBC Tower in Chicago against the FCC’s attempt to relax media ownership concentration rules. Notice of the protest was given in the suburban Daily Herald by Ted Cox, one of CMA’s best friends in the mainstream media.
| Dale Lehman & Karen Young |
* O Scott helped organize a CMA protest demonstration against FCC chair Michael Powell, who was in town to give a dinnertime talk before the Economic Club of Chicago at the Chicago Sheraton. Some 20 attendees came despite freezing cold. The protest saw the debut of some media-and-protest-themed Christmas carols.
* L Scott participated in a meeting with U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (9th, IL) -- a staunch supporter of media and democracy -- concerning net neutrality and other issues related to the upcoming FCC hearing in Chicago.
| WTTW Chicago Tonight host Bob Sirott |
in the organization of the Chicago public forum with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps at the Northwestern University Law School. Here's the text of the public comment Scott gave there. Here is a photo of Scott with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.
* T/R/O Starting in 2003, CAN TV filmed and aired an ocasional series of seven popular public forum events organized by Chicago Media Action and usually held at the Chicago Temple, a large venue in Chicago’s loop. MC’d by WVON radio hosts and journalists Cliff Kelly and Salim Muwakkil, the forums were titled: “Racial stereotypes in media: How do they harm us? What can we do?”, “Aftermath: Unanswered questions from 9/11” (extended clip of documentary here), “Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, fear, and the selling of American empire”, “Martin Luthor King, Jr.: Poverty, racism and war – What did the media fail to cover and why?”, “The Threat of U.S. Intervention in Iran: A Chicago Media Action forum”, “Coverage of the inner city and the urban poor: The media and urban issues”, “Robert Jensen: Taking Action to Reform Media” and “Amy Goodman”.
2004
* A “News for the White & Wealthy ‘America's most-watched public TV station’ dominated by elite viewpoints” - co-written with James Owens for FAIR Extra!
* A/Res Sanders most important contribution to CMA’s 2004 study of Chicago public tv station WTTW's flagship nightly news program “Chicago Tonight” was the research contained Appendix 10 - "WTTW Board of Trustees". A total of three highly paid, former Fox news executives were ousted from WTTW within a year of the release of the CMA study, including Chicago Tonight host Bob Sirott (above), head of development and production Randy King, and CT executive producer Mike Leiderman, additionally charged with making racially and ethnically insensitive remarks. A Carol Marin implant at "Chicago Tonight" appear to have resulted from CMA's pressure, but real problems remained there.
* V Scott hosted a live call-in program on Chicago Access Network TV featuring guest Sut Jhally, founder and director of the Media Education Foundation, and the film "Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire".
* R WLUW-FM "Live from the Heartland" host Mike Stephen, with James Owens.
* S Scott was invited by then WTTW news director John Callaway at the last minute and served as an uncredited panelist at the closing plenary of The Future of Public Television conference sponsored by Harris School and Cultural Policy Center, University of Chicago in December. On that panel, Scott sat next to Cass Sunstein, friend and colleague of President Obama at the University of Chicago. Here is an inaccurate rough transcript. Virtually every public broadcasting leader attended this conference.
Sanders is quoted in the following article about the conference, along with Newton Minow and others - Advice from Chicago: 'Act like you don't have much time, because you don't "Trust fund possible only with new unity and broad support" by Karen Everhart at Current - the magazine serving U.S. public tv and radio. Everhart took me to lunch the last day of the conference on Current’s dime. She is now its managing editor. Scott was also responsible for lining up the C-SPAN cablecast of the opening session of the event.
2005
* A CMA “Third Coast Press” petition to the FCC to deny renewal of all Chicago area TV broadcasting licenses - principal author (uncredited) of petition and the reply to the broadcaster responses.
* R WLUW-FM Loyola University radio. "Live from the Heartland" - host Michael James.
* R WZRD-FM interview, anonynous host.
* S Panelist, National Conference on Media Reform sponsored by Free Press, held in St. Louis, MO. Action clinic entitled "Media Monitoring" organized by Chicago Media Action. (audio)
* S Organizer, action clinic at the 2005 National Conference for Media Reform held by Free Press, entitled "True Public Broadcasting Reform - How do we Get There from Here?"; featured speaker attorney Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the D.C. based Media Access Project. Here is a pic with Scott and home shopping MAP attorneys Andy Schwartzman and Gigi Sohn.
* O Here is a photo of Scott with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (R) taken at a media conference at McCormick Place in Chicago.
* I In late 2005, Chicago Media Action and an allied group called Third Coast Press filed separate petitions to deny the license renewals of the numerous tv stations in the Chicago area. The CMA petition challenged 16 stations and the Third Coast challenge included those 16 and added in both of Chicago’s public television stations. Of course neither petition resulted in any non-renewals, but the stations did have to spend thousands of dollars and a lot of time addressing the petitions, and maybe even a couple minutes thinking. The FCC is kind of slow about these matters -- the 5th and final appeal was rejected in 2016. Here are some links to the remaining news coverage of these filings 1, 2, 3.
2006
* R WZRD-FM Northeastern Illinois University radio (anonymous host)
| CMA members Michael Maranda & Ron Kunde |
* O More than 30 people attended the "AT&T: Bringing Us To Tiers" protest near the AT&T/SBC building (Congress and Federal) in downtown Chicago which Scott helped organize for Chicago Media Action. Attendees unfurled two fifteen-foot banners on opposite ends of Chicago's Congress Parkway, a six-lane freeway exchange through downtown Chicago. Each banner read "STOP AT&T from ruining the internet"
* O Sanders helped organize yet another CMA protest. This protest’s theme: FOX SUX. It was held on Michigan Avenue outside the Fox studios. Signs included the messages "The media: As liberal as the corporations that own them", "We're watching the news. We'll let you know if we find any."
* V Hamid Dabashi “Culture of Imperialism” and Golbar Bashi “Iranian Women and the Impact of a Possible War”. Talks given at Northwestern University, co-sponsored by N.U. History Dept. and Evanston Neighbors for Peace. Iranian American Hamid Dabashi holds the most prestigious chair in Iranian studies in the U.S. at Columbia University and was the consultant to Ridley Scott on the film “Kingdom of Heaven” He is also a leading writer on Iranian film. Scott filmed and edited this event for cablecast on the Chicago Access Network’s CAN-TV.
2007
* A Scott’s 2007 article in Z Magazine Make Public Media Ours, not Theirs, Permanently - A Litany of Lies and Omissions was arguably the most critical essay ever written about public television. It examined the response eight public tv stations made during the insane ramp-up to the mass slaughter of the people of Iraq in 2002-2003. It also takes a look at the seven propaganda pieces thaty aired on the highly vaunted PBS “Frontline” series aired nationwide during that period, the statements of people high up in public tv, and more.
* A Here is a link to one of Scott’s better CMA blog posts: Frontline Iran docu mixed bag at best; TAKE ACTION: PBS CEO misleads us about community control of public TV. Stop PBS before it kills again.
* R Scott gave a recap of the 2007 Chicago FCC hearing on Paul Riismandel's "Mediageek" radio program out of WEFT-FM in Champaign/Urbana.
* L Scott lobbied State Senator Ira Silverstein (IL-8th), Chairman of the Senate Executive Committee, Democratic Caucus Chair, and State Representative Lou Lang (IL-16th), House Deputy Majority Leader in Springfield, IL concerning state cable legislation on the instructions of CAN TV director Barbara Popovic, along with others supporting Chicago Access Network TV.
* T Scott and Mitchell Szczepanczyk, Chicago Media Action’s other mighty main co-founder and spokesperson, were interviewed for CAN TV by the New World Resource Center’s Tim Sarrantonio.
2008
* W/Res Performed paid research for the DC-based Minority Media and Telecommunications Council on digital television converter box redlining of African Americans, Native Americans, and low income Americans for its director David Honig’s January 2008 presentation at the National Association of TV Program Executives.
* O With Steve Macek, professor of communications at North Central College, Scott spoke to the undergraduate communications class taught by Tom Tresser at De Paul University concerning various journalism funding models and a range of topics.
* W/Res Sanders performed paid research counting cable television subscribers in Illinois for the study “Who Gets Cable in Illinois?”. An accurate count of cable tv subscribers will ensure community media facilities get the local and state franchise fee funding due them for local journalism as the for-profit newspaper advertising model continues to erode. Principal study author - Gregory Rose, Gregory Rose and Associates; study coordinator - Harold Feld, for the DC-based Media Access Project, funded by a research bounties grant from the Social Science Research Council.
* W/Res Working at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, Sanders gained over seven years of experience in social science research data collection and other clerical and telephone interviewing work, mostly for the National Immunization Study and mainly at the NIS-related PRC Data Retrieval station completing questionnaires with medical personnel. Prior to that, I worked at stations including: 911 Anniversary, NSECE, Rapid Flu, Gates, GRPF, NSCH, and Pathways, for a total of thirty-seven stations located in TSSO, TSO, TI, and DP. The sponsors of this research include Associated Press - NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NCHS, HHS, Gates Foundation, National Science Foundation, and others. (2009 - 2016)
* A Scott, with professor Steve Macek, North Central College co-wrote an op-ed article on the public interest aspects of the transition from analog to digital tc=v broadcasting that bappeared in a number of newspapers and other publications.
* O Sanders engaged in a discussion hosted by Heartland International and arranged through a program in the U.S. State Department under then Secretary Clinton. Scott spoke in depth with Agnes Chauveau, Executive Director at the prestigious Ecole de journalisme de Sciences PO in Paris, France. One topic of discussion was France’s interesting but failed experiment in the 1930’s with publicly elected radio trustees.
2010
* S Scott was a panelist at the Art, Access & Action: Columbia College Arts & Media Summit with Sylvia Rivera, founder of Chicago Public Media’s vocalo, and others.
| Sanders and Owens USSF workshop handbill |
* S/A/O/I Scott co-organized, with James Owens his usual partner in such activities, a very well-received, standing room-only panel event “Control of Public Media as a Social Justice Issue: Lessons from Latin America and the US” at the 2010 U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. “This workshop interrogates professional authority as a cultural force that enables neo-liberal capitalism and restrains social justice demands. Only when marginalized and oppressed communities participate in shaping media systems & content can we build a culture of solidarity and justice. Another world is necessary and to build it we need another media!” Scott and James authored a related article “Control of public media as a social justice issue” that was published in Truthout and the panel instigated an article titled “USSF: The Control of Public Media as a Social Justice Issue” also in Truthout.
* O Scott and Center for New Television and WTTW Image Union founder Tom Weinberg presented to the Outreach and Engagement Strategies for Documentary Film class taught by Adjunct Professor Naomi Walker at the Michael Rabiger Center for Documentary at Columbia College in Chicago.
* B Scott Sanders was interviewed for the book Reinventing Public Service Television for the Digital Future (Intellect University of Chicago Press - 2010) by Mary Debrett, media studies lecturer at LaTrobe University in Australia.
* O With James Owens, Sanders engaged in a lengthy discussion with ten journalists, NGO representatives and media educators from the Ukraine. This meeting was hosted by Heartland International and arranged through a program in the U.S. State Department under then Secretary Clinton. For over two decades the organization “designed and implemented international programs that promote the development of civil society around the world through professional exchanges.”
* R/A Scott and James Owens were on KPFA-FM, the Pacifica radio station out of Berleley, CA. CMA blog post here.
2011
* Award Scott received the 2011 Nelson Algren Committee Award (link at left) “in appreciation of exceptional service to the community” and “a conscience in touch with humanity”.
2012
* O Scott gave a presentation of a portion of his unpublished research entitled “The compromised education coverage of WTTW and WBEZ and the elite control of knowledge” at an event held at the Multikulti cultural center called “Myths, Democracy, & Tools for Media Literacy Education”. He discussed the blatant pro-1% tilt of Chicago public tv and public radio coverage of public education issues. His workshop soiught to identify common problems facing media justice activists and true education reform activists, and common solutions to the democratic deficits resulting from elite control of knowledge. WBEZ education reporter Linda Lutton attended the talk unexpectedly and an interesting discussion ensued with Lutton admitting to only some of WBEZ’s missteps. The keynote speech was given earlier that day by reknowned local documentary filmmaker Gordon Quinn.
* R Sanders attended the 2012 Grassroots Radio Conference held at the Champaign-Urbana Independent Media Center, made great contacts, and learned something about legalities, automation, and other technical aspects of broadcast radio.
| former WBEZ gm Torey Malatia |
* I/T/R/O/A When Torey Malatia (left), the station manager of Chicago’s leading public radio broadcaster WBEZ-FM, cancelled “Smiley & West”, calling it “advocacy journalism” like “Democracy Now”, Scott Sanders immediately created a high profile Facebook protest page, communicated with Smiley’s staff, and engineered a massive public outcry. The public’s response resulted in Smiley, West and Goodman organizing the huge double-overflow free public event (complete video) “Poverty, Power, and the Public Airwaves” in Chicago that led to the show being immediately picked up by local stations WVON and WCPT, while Smiley’s solo radio show landed at WCPT as well.
Malatia never recovered from the effects of all the bad publicity from this and other controversies. WBEZ’s long-time ceo was gone within nine months and the station was unionized within a year, while “Democracy Now” soon landed at WYCC-TV -- Chicago’s “other” public tv station. A very incomplete list of articles and posts stemming from WBEZ’s decision to drop "Smiley & West" follows:
* I “On balance, WBEZ removes "Smiley & West" from lineup” - Robert Feder - TimeOut Chicago
* I Read Tavis Smiley's letter to the autocratic, elite-appointed, & divinely inspired WBEZ ceo
Malatia at Black Agenda Report.
* A The new ‘professionalized’ Al Jazeera will not solve democratic deficits in US public media – We need a revolution. - Scott Sanders. Not bad!
| Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman |
* I “Tavis Smiley is out at WBEZ - and he's not smiling” - Laura Washington - Chicago Sun-Times - thanks again LW!
* I Smiley was interviewed on WGN-AM.
* I Smiley was interviewed on the WGN-TV morning show.
* I Tavis Smiley PBS show featuring Amy Goodman Awesome!
* I “Smiley to WBEZ: ‘Demeaning, derogatory and dead wrong’” - Robert Feder TimeOut Chicago
* I “Tavis Smiley Fires Back At WBEZ's Malatia Over Smiley & West Cancellation” -
| Tavis Smiley & Cornel West |
* I “Protests against censorship and blacklists at WTTW and WBEZ to grow after 'public' radio in Chicago dumps popular Tavis Smiley show” - George N. Schmidt - Substance News Excellent!
* I BlackNews.com
* I “Smiley Irate at Cancellation by Chicago Public Radio” Richard Prince Journal-isms
* I Current
* I “Pacifica Foundation Rejects Chicago's WBEZ-FM's Negative Characterization of "Advocacy Identity’ in American Media”
* I Current
* I BradleyReport
* I TimeoutChicago - Robert Feder covered this story more thoroughly than all others.
* R/O Spurred by the Grassroots Radio Conference, and as Chicago Media Action had become less active, Sanders figured the best plan would be to focus upon advancing local journalism and cultural arts by figuring out how to “supercharge” local community media. Somehow.
Scott found a willing and steadfast ally in this pursuit in Charles Benton, an amazing and brilliant man he had served with on the Evanston cable television board, and someone he kept bumping into at media conferences over the years. Scott and Charles had virtually no involvement with the Evanston Community Media Center since the mid-eighties. ECMC’s budget was being diverted to pay down the City’s deficit and the public access channel had become a jukebox that only played golden oldies 99% of the time. Benton, Sanders, and long-time ECMC director Steve Bartlebaugh tried convincing the Evanston Public Library to take control of the community media assets and apply for an lpfm license through a written proposal and lunch with the library director, to no avail.
However, at the very last minute, Sanders was able to link up with a once highly successful but then increasingly troubled cultural center and music school in Evanston called BooCoo which filed for the low power radio license at 98.3FM. It was hoped that the radio license could save the arts center and help it recover from the extreme mismanagement of the original founder, who had become beset by personal issues.
2014
* R/O In 2014, in order to best pursue their original mission, the remaining members with a real interest in advancing the cultural center, along with Scott, incorporated as Creative Arts Factory of Evanston. The property reverted to the County and then the City bought it and froze out the arts activists. The radio license was denied due to the application’s confused and politicised lineage, and the center remains empty.
2015
* R/O The lpfm license for 98.3FM was awarded to a west African group in 2015. A meeting was held soon thereafter with Mr. Benton, the west Africans, Scott, cultural center representatives, and Medill journalism instructors. The upshot for all was that an established and reliable community group is needed as a senior partner in the radio effort. Sanders submitted a multimedia and paid journalism proposal -- which included a friendly offer to negotiate with CAN TV from the west African group -- to then CAN TV executive director Barbara Popovic which she ignored, for the $2.6 million quasi-publicly funded CAN TV had become a place where decisions were made in a very undemocratic manner.
Much tension and fighting had by that time subsumed CAN TV over issues centering on workplace democracy, sky high management salaries and poverty wages for a number of its workers. A struggle for unionization ensued, which was achieved around the end of the year, the same time CAN TV moved into the new facility it built due to the loss of its Green Street lease.
| CAN TV workers walking the picket line |
2016 - present
* R/O At the $2.6 million budgeted CAN TV, the first half of 2016 was taken up by a messy contract negotiation phase, during which one employee was fired without cause, and others received harsh discipline, retaliation for union organizing. The last straw was probably management’s hiring of an anti-union lawyer at an exorbitantly high rate of pay. Agreement on a NABET-CWA contract was finally reached in the late summer, around the time a top manager left the organization. That was also around the time Scott linked up on this issue with his friend Chris Geovanis, a freelance political communications consultant and speechwriter for Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s nemesis, to figure out the best strategies that will put the lpfm station together with CAN TV.
By coincidence, in the course of a short three week period in September and October, first Scott was laid off by NORC, then the radio station at 98.3 lpfm commenced official broadcasting out of Uptown (which started the clock on deadlines requiring hefty federal program production quotas), and then CAN TV executive director Popovic announced her retirement and a much-delayed November open house at the new multi-use facility. CAN TV is at an important juncture.
Through Chicago Media Action’s web site, email list, twitter feed, and other means, Scott Sanders organized support for multimedia and paid journalism expansion at CAN TV, for the creation of a democratic workplace at CAN TV, and for the petition that is seeking changes to the organization’s bylaws that will give control of its board to trustees elected by volunteers and donors. Soon after the open house, at which he distributed this one page summary of his multimedia and paid journalism proposal that languished on Ms. Popovic’s desk for a year and a half to the several CAN TV trustees present, and others, Scott applied for Popovic’s open executive director position.
* A CMA blog entries 719-726 concern CAN TV.
It is unclear at this writing whether CAN TV will realize the opportunities that are before it at this juncture and grasp them soon enough. Fundamentally, it is also unclear who will control the most important community media assets in Chicago -- those who are well off or those who support and do the work of making community media.
